Re: [2.3.3x] ALI M15x3 chipset support (EXPERIMENTAL)

From: Tom Crane (uhap023@vms.rhbnc.ac.uk)
Date: Tue Jan 11 2000 - 16:12:17 EST


In article <fa.gp91u1v.195qi0a@ifi.uio.no>, Meelis Roos <mroos@linux.ee> writes:
> AH> Use it and complain, boast, or nothing.........being a bench warmer will
> AH> continue the status of "EXPERIMENTAL".

OK Here goes.
I have a Jetway J-542B MB with 64MB RAM and a K6-2/333 CPU. I am running
kernel 2.3.37.

00:00.0 Host bridge: Acer Laboratories Inc. M1541 (rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Acer Laboratories Inc.: Unknown device 5243 (rev 04)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: Acer Laboratories Inc. M1533 (rev b4)
00:0f.0 IDE interface: Acer Laboratories Inc. M5229 (rev 20)

>From dmesg I have,

Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 6.21
ALI15X3: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev 78
ALI15X3: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:pio
hda: Maxtor 90680D4, ATA DISK drive
hdc: QUANTUM FIREBALL CX10.2A, ATA DISK drive
hdd: TAEIL CDD-7320T, ATAPI CDROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
ALI15X3: MultiWord DMA enabled
hda: Maxtor 90680D4, 2014MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=826/255/63, (U)DMA
ALI15X3: MultiWord DMA enabled
hdc: QUANTUM FIREBALL CX10.2A, 9787MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=19885/16/63, (U)DMA
hdd: ATAPI 20X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.06

After booting hdparm /dev/hda gives,

 multcount = 0 (off)
 I/O support = 0 (default 16-bit)
 unmaskirq = 0 (off)
 using_dma = 1 (off)
 readahead = 8 (on)

So far, so good?
Here are my hdparm -tT /dev/hda results,

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 3.04 seconds =42.11 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 9.73 seconds = 6.87 MB/sec

I am disappointed by the 6.87MB/sec. Shouldn't it be much more? With
using_dma=0 I get 4-5MB/sec. NB: The Maxtor HD is a UDMA/Mode2 device and
its specs say,

        DATA TRANSFER RATE:
          To/From Interface: ....................... Up to 33.0 MBs
          To/From Media: ........................... Up to 18.6 MBs

A couple of supplementary points/questions: My kernel is reporting
'ALI15X3: MultiWord DMA enabled' rather than 'ALI15X3: Ultra DMA enabled'
as Meelis' does. Any ideas why?

According to Western Digital's UDMA info webpage, 'multiword DMA mode 2'
should give a max. data-rate of 16.6MB/sec - much more than I get.

> Positive results on 2 computers.
[system details cut]
> /dev/hda:
> Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 10.82 seconds = 5.91 MB/sec

This is very similar to the figure I get...

> /dev/hdb:
> Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 4.10 seconds =15.61 MB/sec
> /dev/hdc:
> Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 4.32 seconds =14.81 MB/sec
>
> Strange that hda is slower than hdb, since these disks are identical.

Any Suggestions ??
Thanks
Tom.

-- 
Tom Crane, Dept. Physics, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Hill,
Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, England. 
Email:	uhap023@vms.rhbnc.ac.uk
SPAN:   19.875
Fax:    01784 472794

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